Feed roller, feed roller assembly, and sheet handling system

Abstract

A feed roller is provided for use in a feed roller assembly for intermittently feeding sheets. The feed roller has a body having a cross-section including an arc portion forming a partially cylindrical configuration. A support member is coupled to the body on at least one side of the body. A distance roller is rotatably supported by the support member relative to the body. The distance roller is spaced apart opposite the arc section parallel to the body.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]Benefit is claimed of U.S. patent application 60 / 772,082, filed Feb. 10, 2006, and priority is claimed of German patent application 20 2006 002 248, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein as if set forth at length.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]The invention relates to a feed roller, a feed roller assembly for intermittently feeding sheets, and a sheet handling system.[0003]A feed roller and a feed roller assembly of the mentioned kind are well known in the art. As listed below some of these provide a preceding glide shoe or a side-mounted distance roller for the feed roller. The prior art feed rollers, however still have significant drawbacks.[0004]In U.S. Pat. No. 5,372,359 a gliding shoe is pressed onto the pad. There is a comparatively high coefficient of friction to the pad. This results in: a higher force to drive; a speed limitation with regard to the throughput; and possibly a squeaking noise during separa...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009]The concept of the instant invention applies a distance roller basically extending along the total axis the feed roller. The rotatable body of the distance roller has no contact to the chord portion of the feed roller. The rotatable body guarantees that the contact to the papers is restricted to a single line basically extending along the axis of the feed roller. There is a contact gap between said contact line of the body of the distance roller and a leading portion, i.e. nose part of the frictive part of the feed roller. These and other measures make sheet feeding more reliable and less frictive. In particular the prior art problems as mentioned in the introduction are avoided.

[0010]According to the concept of the invention, a sudden impact on the retard pad by the feed roller's nose piece during the transition of the chord portion to the arc portion of the feed roller at a feed start is avoided. The preceding distance roller extending along the total axis of the feed roller is depressing the retard pad to a radius equal or similar to the radius of the nose part of the feed roller when it gets in contact with the paper. This is done without the risk of rising of the paper of affecting the paper disadvantageously in other ways. Moreover, as a distance member is formed as the distance roller feeding is performed basically without any friction. The pre-adjustment of the pad by means of the distance roller of the invention does enable a smooth transition of the uppermost paper onto the pad.

Problems solved by technology

On the contrary when the transition of the retard pad's circular path is not adjusted to the nose piece of the feed roller double or even multipicks are to be expected as the retard pad all of a sudden is pushed down by the nose piece of the feed roller which is causing a small but unavoidable overshoot of the pad towards a higher circular path.

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